


Chasing Twisters

by JanusFictions



Series: Genetic Sexual Attraction (GSA) [2]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Drama, F/M, Fluff, I still don't know how tags work, Incest, Parent/Child Incest, Porn With Plot, Smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-04
Updated: 2019-08-04
Packaged: 2020-07-31 00:27:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20106130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JanusFictions/pseuds/JanusFictions
Summary: Sequel toGenetic Sexual Attraction.After tapping into the Negative Speed Force to save Nora from being erased from existence, Barry is forced to deal with the consequences of once again altering the timeline as he finds himself closed off from the Speed Force, the Speed Force's negative counterpart seemingly having permanently embedded itself in his system, slowly changing him for the worse. Not wanting to worry his friends and family, Barry keeps this hidden from them, although the truth never stays buried for long.Will Nora be able to help her dad once again become the hero he's meant to be, or will she fall victim to temptation?





	Chasing Twisters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you who are just joining us, if you haven't read the previous story, I highly recommend you do or you'll likely have a hard time following the story and miss crucial elements to the plot. 
> 
> And as for those of you who picking up from where the last story left off, I wanted to apologize for the long wait. Things have been really hectic as of late and I haven't had a lot of time to write, so this story's sort of taken a backseat in the meantime. This is slightly longer than the last chapter, so hopefully that makes up for it. Not sure about the title for this story, though. I might change it.
> 
> Seeing as this is the first chapter for part 2 of this story, there's unfortunately no smut, only setup and plot. But don't worry, we'll get right back into the naughty stuff in the next chapter. 
> 
> Until then, enjoy.
> 
> P.S. I'll be honest, I was a bit tipsy while writing some sections of this chapter, so there might be some errors.

She bounced up and down on the soles of her feet as she limbered up, the sun shining down at her from high up in the sky as she stopped a moment to stretch her arms and legs before drawing a deep breath to calm herself.

She could do this. This was easy stuff. Which is why she was having a hard time understanding why she was this nervous. Although if she had to guess, then it likely had something to do with the fact that this would be her first solo-mission. Her dad had insisted on sitting this one out, which she found weird. Something about wanting her to learn how to do this without him so she wouldn’t have to solely depend on him always being there. It unnerved her that he was thinking like that, but from a logical standpoint she couldn’t fault him. She did want to come into her own, but a part of her was anxious at the mere thought of him not being there with her.

She shook her head briskly to clear her mind before putting her mask in place on her face, her hands clenching and unclenching restlessly by her side for a moment when she heard her dad’s mesmerizing voice in her ear.

“Alright Nora, you ready?”

She nodded her head before mentally slapping herself when she realized how stupid it was since he wasn’t there to see it, quickly correcting her behavior as she brought her hand up to her earpiece to respond.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m ready!” she blurted out excitedly, her nerves on edge as she slid her heel backwards along the concrete pavement, pebbles scraping against her shoes as she wound it back before sliding her other foot forward to get into a running position.

“Alright, just keep in mind what I told you; slow down and observe your surroundings. Look for traps, emergency exits – anything. Are the criminals armed? If so, how many, and with what? Do any of them potentially have powers? Absorb the information, and then decide on a plan. Remember, you literally have all the time in the world,” she heard him say again, and she nodded once more, this time to herself as her hand reached down to touch the ground to finalize her pose.

“Okay, I’m ready,” she confirmed, and less than a second later she heard her comms whir back to life again, accompanied by her dad’s soothing voice.

“Then run, Nora, run!” And just like that she was off with a rush of wind in her wake, zigzagging all throughout the city until she spotted her target.

The bank. They’d gotten an anonymous tip on a bank robbery happening in advance, and her dad thought it’d be a good idea to take the opportunity to prepare her before it happens, so they’d have the chance to act the moment it does. With the building in her sights, she zoomed forward with a new surge of speed, stopping just short of the building to take in her surroundings. It looked like a relatively small bank from the outside. Two floors, four windows on each front, and double front doors made of reinforced steel. Satisfied she’d learned all there was to know from the outside, she quickly ran right past the police barricade and phased through the double front doors, coming to a halt again to observe the situation.

She counted eight robbers, all wearing an assortment of low-tier military equipment. Kevlar vests, gas masks, and ski-masks underneath them. Most of them had old school assault rifles, AK-47’s and AR-15’s – all but one. Her eyes focused in on the man who looked suspiciously out of place from the rest. His equipment was a lot more of a modern/futuristic blend. His vest looked considerably pricier and more sleek than the rest of them, and he was carrying what looked like some sort of energy rifle if she had to guess. Either way, if she were a betting woman, she’d put her money on him being the leader of the bunch. He’d be her priority. She did another sweep of the area, taking in account the number of hostages which came to a total of sixteen and did a quick loop around the room to scan for traps.

She zoomed back in front of the doors where she came in, doing one last headcount of all the criminals that were frozen in place, moving only ever so slightly when enough time had passed. It was time to put her plan into action. She quickly spurred herself forward and zoomed around the room, disarming all the robbers of their weapons and running them out of reach before doing another lap around to knock all of them unconscious apart from the leader. Giving herself a mental pat on the back, she ran over in front of the boss and slapped handcuffs on his wrists before stepping back and patting herself off – allowing time to resume to its natural state. She waited for the reality of the situation to dawn over the man as she stared at him with her hands on her hips, unable to keep herself from feeling smug as she smirked at him.

The man simply looked down at the handcuffs and then back up at her, seemingly not deterred by the fact that she’d just foiled his bank robbery. She felt a familiar tingle down her spine, telling her something was not right, but in the heat of the moment of having successfully stopped a bank robbery all by herself, she toned it out.

“Some old school gear you guys were all carrying. What’s the matter, weren’t willing to toss in some extra money for the bank robbery?” she quipped tauntingly. “You should’ve at least have had the foresight to dress up like the rest. You stood out like a millionaire at a homeless shelter.”

The man let out what sounded like a muffled laughter through his mask, and she felt that familiar tingle down her spine again that this time she couldn’t ignore.

“That was the point,” he said quite simply, and she suddenly heard a beep behind her which she quickly turned around to look for the source of the sound.

Her eyes widened at the sight of one of the hostages, a well-dressed gentleman wearing a suit holding what looked like a detonator, and her heart lurched up to her throat when she realized he’d already pressed it.

She looked around in terror as she saw some form of gas start foaming out from beneath the unconscious robbers’ vests, and without thinking she quickly sped around from hostage to hostage, rushing them out the door as fast as she could before running back in for the next. By the time she’d run in for the woman who was the last real hostage, not including the disguised bank robber, the gas had already found its way into her system, and she only managed to make it to the door with the last hostage when she doubled over and started coughing on all fours.

“G-Go!” she shouted hoarsely at the woman as she gasped for breath, and the woman only hesitated for a split-second before running out in a fit of coughs. The moment the hostage had run out the door she fell on her back, the weird green-tinted smoke wreaking havoc on her lungs.

“Nora? Nora, what’s happening?!” she heard her dad shout through the comms, but she couldn’t answer. All she could do was try to breathe.

“Honestly, you never thought to ask yourself why we were wearing gas masks?” she heard from somewhere beside her, and she rolled over onto her side to look over at the source of the voice, which just so happened to be the well-dressed gentleman from before.

Much to her confusion, the man wasn’t wearing a mask, yet seemed miraculously alright despite being surrounded by whatever gas she’d been exposed to.

“H-How?” she coughed out between gasps for breath, and the man simply smiled cockily at her as she knelt down by her side.

“Oh, I had the antidote injected into my system the day before this all happened. The smoke is more like a nuisance to me than anything else, now. Sort of like when someone’s smoking a cigarette in your face,” he explained as calmly as you’d like while absentmindedly wiping his hand back and forth through the air in front of his face to wave it off. “It’s a bit of an expense to make, but this was never about the money. Truth be told, this little set-up of ours serves another purpose,” he continued as she coughed and wheezed on the ground, managing to raise herself onto all fours for a moment as she looked up at the man in the blue suit.

“W-What?” was all she managed to utter out in a question, but it seemed to be enough as his smile merely widened in response, undoubtedly preparing to give a vague, ominous reply, and lo and behold, she’d been right.

“This robbery was merely a precursor to a bigger question, and you’ve just given us half of the equation in the form of an absent Flash. You really ought to validate your sources before you blindly run in to save the day.”

She didn’t have time to stop and think what he meant by all of that. She needed to get of here. Suddenly filled with renewed determination, she quickly zoomed out the building and ran as far as her legs would carry her before collapsing in an alley.

She retched over the ground, just barely stopping herself from vomiting as she coughed her lungs out. When she could finally breathe again, she raised her hand up to her earpiece to speak.

“Dad?” she practically whispered in a hoarse voice, her throat sore from the coughing.

“Nora?! What happened, are you alright?!” her dad shouted back instantly, causing her to flinch a bit from the yelling.

“I’m fine, dad. I got the hostages out, but they had some sort of gas trap, I need to know how to get rid of it,” she explained as calmly as she could, not wanting her dad to worry, which only seemed to work partly as he lowered his voice a touch.

“Okay, okay, did any of them have gas masks?” he asked questioningly with suppressed panic in his voice.

“Yeah, all the robbers I knocked out had gas masks apart from one,” she replied simply, trying to keep it short yet detailed.

“Then you don’t need to get rid of the gas. Listen, you’ve already gotten all of the hostages to safety, so just run in there, grab one of the gas masks and neutralize the rest of the robbers,” he explained step-by-step, and she wanted to slap herself for missing such an obvious solution. She nodded again to herself as she started walking before speeding up to a light jog.

“I’m on it.”

At that, she zoomed forward at super speed and back to the bank, phasing through the doors just as she had before and grabbed one of the gas masks off an unconscious robber and putting it on. Now satisfied she wasn’t about to die from inhaling gas, she looked around to see where the two remaining robbers had gone – blinking in disbelief when her eyes landed on them again where they stood barely an inch from where they had been.

To top it all off, they were chatting. Chatting. In the middle of the crime scene like they weren’t just currently robbing a bank covered in toxic gas. Suspending her disbelief for a moment, she quickly seized the opportunity and ran in and cuffed the real leader and zoomed them both outside into police custody. The moment she’d done that, she took a moment to look around at her work, and the man behind it all. Now that she had the chance to look at him from somewhere other than behind the lens of a gas bomb, she could properly analyze his appearance. Just as she’d previously noticed, he was particularly well-dressed – being clad in a navy three-piece suit and some expensive black shoes. He clearly cared a lot about his appearance, based off on how well-groomed he was. Black, slicked back hair with an ungodly amount of gel in it, brown eyes, and a stubble to boot. But what stood out most about him was how he carried himself with an aura of confidence, bordering dangerously close on arrogance.

He wasn’t the most unlikely candidate for a crime boss but based on how little he seemed to care that he’d just been apprehended, and the fact that he’d made absolutely no move to escape didn’t really fit with the whole narrative that had been weaved. All of that coupled with his ominous speech earlier, she wasn’t so sure she was looking at the mastermind behind the whole operation.

Ignoring a smug smile pointed in her direction from the suited man, she wandered over to quickly brief one of the officers on what had happened, giving him the once over regarding the robbery and the suited ‘hostage’ role in it. After dealing with a few rude comments from some of the robbers, and some praise from the hostages and policemen, she gave them all a curt nod and zoomed off back to S.T.A.R Labs.

-

She came to an abrupt stop in the hallway right before she turned the corner into the cortex with what she had dubbed her ‘victory’ stride. All things considered, things had turned out a lot better than they could’ve – and while she wasn’t happy about the mystery that had been created by the man in the suit, she was quite content to call it a win. She’d saved lives, stopped the men responsible, and lived to tell the tale. Not too shabby for her first real solo mission, and worthy of a celebration. Her smile widened at the sight of her dad standing by the desk of the cortex who turned around at the sound of her footsteps, and she whooshed over to engulf him in a hug which he eagerly returned just a tad too tightly.

“Dad, I can’t breathe,” she muttered out in a strained voice, and he quickly let go and pulled back to look her over, presumably checking her for wounds. “Dad, I’m fine,” she confirmed, and he nodded slowly as he let out a sigh.

“Sorry, you just had me worried there for a moment when you didn’t respond. I thought maybe something had happened,” he said apologetically, and she smiled at his concern for her before offering an easy nod at his logical assumption.

“Well, something did happen, but I dealt with it. The robbers are in custody, the hostages are safe, and so am I,” she reassured him, her smile faltering for a moment as she thought back on what the man in the suit had told her, a fact her dad picked up on.

“And yet you don’t seem all that happy,” he stated a matter-of-factly, his eyebrows furrowing in barely contained confusion.

“No I am, it’s just..” She trailed off, sighing deeply as she twiddled her thumbs together as she sometimes liked to do when she was nervous, staying silent for a moment of contemplation before peering up to look her dad in the eye. “Something the man said bothered me,” she clarified, and Barry quirked an eyebrow in a silent gesture for her to clarify further, and she took a deep breath before doing precisely that. “He said the whole robbery wasn’t about the money, but rather as he put it; ‘Merely a precursor to a bigger question, and you’ve just given us half of the equation in the form of an absent Flash.’” Her dad nodded along in understanding as she spoke until suddenly he seemed to tense slightly the moment she’d finished.

She squinted at him assessingly, tilting her head slightly as she tried to get him to look at her.

“Dad? What do you think he meant by that?” she inquired softly, her gaze darting from Barry’s left eye to his right as she tried to read the glint that had just appeared in them, but it disappeared as he shook his head, followed by a shrug of his shoulders.

“I’m not sure. They probably just saw that I wasn’t there and started reading too much into it,” he explained quickly, and she nodded ever so slowly, something about the explanation not quite clicking with her. “Whatever it is, if there’s something more to it, we’ll deal with it when and if it comes. No need to spend all our time worrying about something we can’t do anything about,” he said further, and she sighed in recognition of the wisdom of his words.

Although she did find it odd that ever since the whole ordeal with the Reverse-Flash a bit less than a week ago, he hadn’t really been using his powers all that much. She knew he liked to try and separate his real life from his life as the Flash, but something about it all rubbed her the wrong way. But then again who was she to question it? After all, her accusing him of lying to her would be a bit hypocritical, all things considered.

She shook her head, deciding to let it go. If there was something, he’d tell her. She knew he would.

“You’re right. I’m sorry, I just don’t like the idea of someone out there may be trying to hurt us and not being able to do anything about it,” she told him resignedly as she let out another sigh, her heart leaping in her chest as her dad gave her a sympathizing smile as he reached out to put his hand on her shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze.

“I know how you feel. But as fast as we are, Nora, we can’t stop things before they start to happen. That’s just something you’ll have to learn to live with, just as I have,” he said sagely, and she smiled up at him in response before pulling him into another hug.

After hugging her dad for a moment she wished would last forever, she reluctantly pulled away with another sigh before smiling brightly up at him.

“Hey, how about we go out and celebrate? I know a cute little diner a few blocks down from Jitters we could go to. They have the BEST meatball subs, honest to God,” she suggested excitedly, already beginning to salivate at the thought of food.

Having to ingest more than ten thousand calories a day was positively exhausting at times, not to mention the dent it puts in your wallet -- which she really ought to ask her dad how they can afford at some point -- but at the same time being able to try as much food as you want on a daily basis had its perks.

“Sure, sounds good,” he replied enthusiastically as he gave her one of his thousand-watt smiles that never failed to brighten her day, and she returned it in kind with a smile of her own before looking around the empty room, her face scrunching up in confusion before she looked to her dad for answers.

“Hey, where is everyone? I was thinking we could maybe invite the rest of the team along,” she inquired curiously, her dad doing a once over sweep of the room before looking back at her.

“Yeah, no, I told them to take the day off. Said I wanted to do some one-on-one training together. Told them I’d call if we needed them,” he answered casually, and she bobbed an easy nod in response before heaving her shoulders in a lazy shrug.

“Alright well, guess it’s just the two of us, then,” she said happily with a wide smile. “Too be honest, I kind of prefer it this way. I just didn’t want them to feel left out. After all, we’ve been spending more or less all our time together.”

Her dad let out a soft chuckle at that, nodding in agreement at her comment as he returned her smile, his expression telling her that he shared the sentiment.

“Well I don’t think anyone will fault us for wanting to spend time together after what happened. But that’s worth keeping in mind for future occasions,” he replied as he buried his hands in his pockets, and she nodded at his assessment.

“Yeah, you’re right. So, shall we get going?”

A brief flicker of hesitation flashed over her dad’s face so quickly you wouldn’t have noticed it unless you were a speedster, and she quirked her brow curiously as she prepared to ask him about it only for him to beat her to the finish line.

“Yeah, absolutely. You go ahead without me. I just need to finish up some stuff here and then I’ll join you,” he said with what sounded like practiced ease rather than any genuine relaxed manner which had her investigative instincts firing warning shots all through her body, begging her to look further into it, but she quelled the urge despite everything telling her not to.

_‘It’s probably nothing,’_ she thought to herself. _‘If it’s important he’ll tell me.’_

Finally she nodded resignedly, giving him a forced smile as she tried not to give anything way that something was wrong.

“Uh, sure,” she said hesitantly as she started to back up towards the hallway to start making her way there. “I’ll text you the address, alright?” she finished, and he nodded as he gave her an equally forced smile, the two of them likely seeing through each other’s acts. It was hard to try and hide something from someone when you were on each other’s wavelengths – and not to mention are both terrible liars, but it looked like they’d come to an unspoken agreement to let it go.

“Sounds good. I won’t be long, don’t worry,” he said reassuringly, and she simply nodded in response as she gave him a more genuine smile before turning around and zooming off towards the diner, but not before swinging by the Speed Lab to change out of her uniform and put on actual clothes.

Once she’d dressed herself in her signature black and white leather jacket, some black trousers, and a thin white t-shirt emblazoned with some vibrant red and yellow stripes, she sped outside and started running. After doing a little detour to take the scenic route, she finally rushed over to her destination and occupied a table by the window to wait for her dad to arrive. She didn’t have to wait long as she looked out the window ten minutes later to see him walking by in his casual civilian clothing, a bland gray button-up shirt and some dark blue jeans -- his hair ruffled from the wind, and puzzlingly enough he seemed.. irritated. She made a mental note to herself to ask him about it once they’d gotten some food in them, not wanting to risk a potential outburst if she could avoid it.

He was probably just frustrated that he hadn’t eaten anything. Being hungry had a tendency to make you annoyed, after all. In any case, she wasn’t sure why she was worrying about it. Her dad wasn’t the type to lose his cool, especially in a public setting. Her paranoia was playing tricks on her again. She berated herself for letting her doubts get the better of her and waved her dad over as he walked into the diner. The moment he saw her his anger seemed to disappear in front of her eyes, the corners of his lips breaking out in a smile and the visible tension that had built up in his shoulders seeping out as if it was never there. She smiled back at him as he made his way over and sat across from her.

“Cute place,” he said softly as he looked around them. The diner was pretty small and simplistic, sporting checkered white walls and matching floor tiles, bland mahogany brown furniture and a bar with some stools set out in front of it. All in all, it was a cozy little place. Informal enough for their purpose, and quiet enough for them to be able to talk in peace.

“Isn’t it? I’ve come here a couple times before. It’s not much to look at, but the food is surprisingly good,” she replied as she leaned forward and joined her arms up on the edge of the table as she regarded her dad. “You took longer than I thought. Didn’t you run here?” she asked questioningly, and he seemed to tense a bit at the question.

“I did, I just underestimated how long it’d take for me to finish up at STAR Labs,” he answered pretty quickly, and she nodded slowly in recognition of his words, not seeing the need to question it any further.

“Well I’m just glad you’re here,” she said with a smile that quickly morphed to a smirk. “Especially because I am starving, and I didn’t want to order without you. So hurry up and order something so I can eat!” she blurted out cheekily, and he let out a good-natured chuckle as he picked up the menu in front of him and flicked through it until finally deciding on some dubious beef sub.

Before long they were both digging into their food of choice with her eating with a bit more enthusiasm then perhaps was considered appropriate.

“God, I **LOVE** meatballs,” she said appraisingly as she moaned around a mouthful of her food, and she looked up at her dad who was looking at her weirdly with one eyebrow perked suggestively, and she furrowed her brow at him in confusion. “What?” she questioned almost defensively, and he simply pursed his lips to try and hide a smile, and she thought back on what she’d just said until realizing the reason for his behavior.

Her meatball comment.

“Oh, get your head out of the gutter,” she said as she rolled her eyes before taking another bite of her delicious meatball sub, to which her dad simply let loose another chuckle and continued to eat his own food.

-

“What do you think that guy meant when he said: ‘You really ought to validate your sources before you blindly run in to save the day.’?” She wiped her fingers clean with a napkin after finishing her food, and her dad chewed thoughtfully on the last piece of his sub as he seemed to consider her question with some thought put into it before swallowing his food to give her an answer.

“If I had to guess, I’d say he was probably the one responsible for the anonymous tip we got about the bank robbery. He wanted us to know that it was going to happen. The question is, why?” he replied with a furrowed brow as he leaned forward against the table, looking equally as apprehensive as she did.

“I have a bad feeling about all of this,” she muttered out nervously, letting out a sigh as she leaned back in her seat.

“So do I, but like I said, there’s nothing we can do about it for now. So just put it out of your mind and enjoy yourself while you can,” he responded, giving her a somewhat forced smile which she assumed was for her sake. She nodded as she tilted her head to the left to look out the window, watching the cars and passersby whirl past as she spoke.

“I know. I just can’t shake the feeling that something bad is going to happen.”

The moment the words left her mouth her eyes widened in shock as she saw a trail of lightning flash past the window. She knew that lightning.

White lightning.

She quickly hopped up to her feet as she was overcome with a tremendous amount of anger, and she made to get ready to run after him.

“Nora, wait!” was the last thing she heard before she zoomed out of the diner to give chase.

She struggled to keep herself calm as she ran after him, her anger threatening to boil over the tightly controlled bubble she had over her emotions, and she shook her head to try and stem the line of thought that was going through her brain. After following the trail of lightning through the city for a while longer, she turned right at an intersection to see him running up a skyscraper, and she quickly pursued him, running up the side of the building until she found herself on the roof face-to-face with the man who had taken her friend away from her.

“August Heart?! You shouldn’t be here!” she shouted venomously with a mixture of disbelief and anger in her voice, and she clenched her fist when she heard a muffled scoff behind Godspeeds white mask.

“So you’re Barry Allen’s daughter. Funny, he neglected to mention that part,” he replied ominously, clearly opting to ignore her question, and she narrowed her gaze angrily onto him in response, what little training she’d received from her father being the only thing stopping her from throwing caution to the wind and charging him head-first.

“Who’s ‘he’?” she said questioningly, the tone of her voice suggesting the words to be more of a demand than a request. Was he working with someone? How did he know her father’s name? And more importantly, how did he know she was related to him?

She had way too many questions, and the monster in front of her didn’t seem all too compelled to answer them. In fact, he was looking around as if he couldn’t be less interested in her, which only served to piss her off that much more.

“No matter. Let’s make this quick,” he answered dismissively as he finally set his attention on her, and she quickly braced herself, expecting an attack but being surprised when there’s no attempt at one. She suspected that it might be a trap, but she didn’t care. Her passions ran too high in that moment, but not high enough from stopping her from taking precautions altogether. He undoubtedly expected her to gun it a straight line towards him, so she’d subvert his expectations the best she could.

She quickly turned around and zoomed off the way she came, running along the side of the building until arriving on his side of it, at which time she dashed up onto the roof again to come up directly behind him – smirking to herself to find his back turned to her, and she charged forward to surprise him when he suddenly whirled around faster than she could process and held out his arm to ram it into her chest while she ran at him to use her own momentum against her. Her breath was knocked out of her chest as she flopped down onto her back with a sound thud, and she coughed and wheezed as she tried desperately to suck the air back into her lungs. Unfortunately she got no such opportunity as he abruptly picked her up by the collar and ran her over to some nearby machinery and smashed her into it, not giving her a moment to recover as he then sped her to an exact copy of that machinery on the other end of the roof and threw her against it to create another dent.

Before she could do anything he was already on her, delivering two superpowered punches to her stomach before following up with another one to the side of her face, disorienting her entirely. By the time she’d regained her senses she found herself being sped over to the edge of the roof fast enough to give an average human whiplash before throwing her off it. She found herself in rapid free-fall as she plummeted through the air rapidly, terminal velocity doing its thing as she quickly shook her head to clear the fog over her mind before realizing what she had to do – quickly spinning her arms at super speed to try and create a whirlwind to try and slow her fall.

In the end it was all for naught, as she was suddenly caught in a flurry of white lightning and sped over from building to building and smashed into each and every one until they arrived at what was likely their destination as she was once again flung like a ragdoll in one direction before she could even realize where they were. She let out a couple of groans and gasps with each impact as she slid across the ground until finally she came to a halt, and she coughed out a bit of blood as she looked up to take in her surroundings. They were in a football stadium, the same place she’d once attacked her dad when she was under Spencer’s mind control months ago, and she narrowed her gaze onto Godspeed who was standing on the opposite end of the stadium from her.

Seeing as he made no attempt to attack her again, she accepted the reprieve and slowly got up to her feet, wobbling slightly until she righted herself to stand up straight.

“I was told this place had some poetic value,” she heard Godspeed say as he looked around, and she could see the unimpressed look on his face despite the cowl he wore masking it.

“There’s nothing poetic about it, August,” she snapped back harshly, failing to see how this place had any relevance to their current situation. Was it because this was the place she’d been mind-controlled?

“Not for us. But this isn’t about you and me, ‘XS’,” he replied impatiently, and she furrowed her brow at his statement while ignoring the obvious mocking tone he’d used when uttering the name of her superhero alias. She wasn’t sure what was happening, but she most definitely didn’t like it.

Her biggest worry wasn’t the vague, ominous messages he’d been sending her throughout their fight, but rather his frankly alarming increase in speed. She remembered them being more-or-less on par when they’d last fought. For him to have made such rapid progress – it unnerved her. Had he finally succeeded in creating a V-9 serum that would last forever? Her mind shot back to the present as she finally registered his words properly, and she quirked a brow from behind her mask as she regarded him with equal amount intrigue and anger.

“What’s it about, then?” she asked cautiously as she tried to keep the venom out of her voice, thinking it better to avoid provoking him further despite the urge to run over and punch him into the ground.

As much as she hated to admit it, if what just happened was a precursor to his speed, then she was grossly outmatched, something that was becoming a very annoying reoccurring theme lately. If she couldn’t match him in speed, then she’d need be smarter than him. That’s how she’d beaten him before, although admittedly it was with Thawne’s help, and that’s how she’d beat him again. Last time she’d used electromagnetic radiation from the microwave energy pulses that the satellites emitted to neutralize the V-9 in his system, but it was highly unlikely that would work again.

He must’ve learned from the mistake that put him in prison if he’s not an idiot, and even if he is, who’s to say that’d it work if he had in fact perfected the V-9. If he had, that’d mean it’d have bonded completely with his system by now, rendering the previous method obsolete. She’d have to figure out a different method to incapacitate him. For now, she’d have to stall.

“You’ll find out soon enough.”

Before she could contemplate the meaning of his words any further Godspeed has dashed forward and connected his fist with her chest, sending her hurling backwards at high speeds when he suddenly circled around behind her and drove his fist into her back to fling her right back where she started as she collided with the ground.

She let out an angry huff before bouncing back up to her feet and turning around, hoping to catch him off guard as she threw her fist in his direction, only for her fist to go through him as he vibrated his body in order for her attack to phase right through him. The moment she realized what had happened she was queuing up for another punch only for him to beat her to it – instantly retaliating with a lightning powered cross to the side of her face. She shook it off immediately and attempted to return the favor, twisting her body to throw momentum into her left fist as she drove it forward into his chest. Or rather through it, as he once again vibrated through her blow. She quickly withdrew her hand back to try and atone for her mistake, but the moment she did so he was bending his body upwards into his uppercut as it collided with her chin solidly.

Briefly off balanced by the blow, she recklessly threw all her weight forward as she tried to punch him in the chest, but it again phased through him, and so did she as she stumbled forward with the momentum and went right through him so that he was standing behind her. Before she knew it she felt her legs being swept out from under her and his forearm suddenly came crashing down onto her stomach to smash her into the ground. Before she could respond to his latest attack he was already picking her up by the collar again and lifting her into the air in front of him.

“Too be honest, I expected more from the daughter of the great ‘Flash’,” he taunted before whirling back around and throwing her behind him, and she let out a groan as she rolled across the fake grass which did little to dampen the blow.

She clenched her fists as she laid there face first on the ground before slowly pushing herself up onto all fours, hesitantly lifting her gaze to look over at him with unbridled fury.

“Be careful what you wish for,” she hissed out through gritted teeth, to which he simply scoffed at in reply before zooming forward towards her.

The moment she saw so much as a flash of his lightning she channeled the Speed Force in her system to slow down time and then reverse it, and she noticed that in the time it had taken her to activate it he was already half-way over to her when he started backpedaling down the way he came.

She smirked as time around her rewound, and she looked on as Godspeed retraced his steps against his will before finally taking advantage of the situation. Zooming forward, she ran over to him and delivered a superpowered punch to his jaw before running back where she’d previously been to restore the natural flow of time. Her smirk widened as he took a step forward to run at her again just as he had before when he suddenly stopped, looking both disoriented and confused as he clutched his jaw with one hand before setting his attention back on her, his masked gaze emitting rage that even she could feel.

Again he made to run towards her, and she rewound time again when she saw another flash of lightning, and just like before she charged forward and delivered another blow to the other side of his jaw before going back to her spot again to let time resume. She repeated this process a couple more times, with each time Godspeed getting angrier and angrier. When she did so again the fifth time, something unexpected happened. He ran forward again and she stood there cockily as she reversed time. When she saw him run backwards again she ran towards him to punch him once more when he suddenly started vibrating and an exact replica of him split away and charged forward with his fist held out in front of him. Before she could react, his clone had rammed his fist into her chest with enough force to release a sonic shockwave and send her flying backwards all the way across the stadium and into a wall which shattered at impact, half-way burying her into the side of the wall.

It took her a moment to realize what had just happened, the ringing in her ears momentarily distracting her from the state of her torso, and she doubled over in pain when she felt the sharp, agonizing pain consume her entire nervous system. She screamed out in bloody agony, feeling as if all her ribs had been shattered from the punch, and she desperately reached out a hand to try and dig her way out of the hole in the wall she’d created. She’d only just found purchase with her left hand when she looked up to see Godspeed and his clone standing outside the crater in the wall, and she felt her body jumpstart to try and escape the imminent danger. Unfortunately for her, it was too late as one of them ran in and grabbed her by the neck and ran her outside before lazily and frankly quite gently lobbing her forward. She could feel her ribs stabbing her insides as she rolled across the ground, and the moment she was finally stationary she coughed out a splatter of blood.

She had half a mind to just lie there and wait for the end, but neither versions of Godspeed seemed very interested in letting her do that as they positioned themselves on either side of her, one of them bending over to help her stand up, and the moment her feet touched the ground they were on her in an instant. The one in front of her punched her across the face faster than she could process, making her stumble back into the one behind her which delivered a similar punch to her back, which in turn made her stumble forwards for another punch. It continued like this for what felt like forever, her body bounced back and forth between the two for punch after punch until finally they stopped, and she fell to her knees.

She could hardly breath as blood leaked out from the corner of her mouth, her breathing coming out as ragged wheezing every time she inhaled a smidge of air into her battered lungs. She looked up in front of her at the sound of muffled laughter, and she tried her best to muster up enough energy to glare at Godspeed as he regarded her with sadistic amusement while hovering over her. Ultimately she was far too weak to do so, and for a moment she thought she had x-ray vision as she could’ve sworn she could see the smirk under his mask.

“Oh, I’ve missed this,” he uttered out with immense satisfaction in his voice as he looked down at his hands that crackled with sparks of white lightning. “The pure, unadulterated power – no longer polluted by despicable synthetic speed drugs.”

She furrowed her brows at his words, the miniscule movement alone enough to make her wince from the cuts on her face. She downcast her gaze as she coughed out another pathetic puff of air mixed with more blood, suddenly becoming hyper-aware of how weak she was feeling as she looked down at her trembling hands, and she realized her entire body was shaking. She risked a glance upwards as she saw him kneel in front of her out of the peripheral of her vision, his head tilting left and right as he looked at her with some sort of sick curiosity.

“You have no idea how hard it was to pretend to be some V-9 addict, to let you draw me into that frankly ridiculous trap – but I’ve been assured it was all going to be worth it. And now..” He slowly rose to his feet as he looked down at her with contempt. “With you kneeling before me, I know that he was right.” She tentatively tilted her head up to look at him before spitting out a bit of blood on his pristine white suit, and he simply sighed in response as he wiped it off with the back of his hand. “I can’t wait to see how this all turns out,” he said simply before turning his back to her, seemingly not bothered by the symbol of defiance she’d just spat on his uniform as he ran across from her and turned back to face her – his clone joining him not even a second later as they stood side by side, staring at her from a distance.

Suddenly they both began to run around in small, controlled circles beside one another, her eyes unable to process anything but a whirlwind of white lightning until they suddenly stopped and simultaneously flung two bolts of lightning towards her.

She urged her body to move, to try and will herself to get out of the way, but she couldn’t. All she could do was stare as the two lightning bolts flew towards her, the world seeming to go into slow-motion when suddenly she heard a distorted zap of the Speed Force, and she stared on in combined confusion and awe as a blurred shape covered in red lightning ran over and caught both bolts of lightning, one in either of its vibrating hands before spinning around and tossing them right back at both copies of Godspeed. Clearly not having anticipated whatever it is that just happened, the two lightning bolts met their intended targets and they both went flying back into the wall behind them in a bright, explosive blast of white lightning.

She blinked twice in disbelief and confusion before squinting at the blurry shape that stood protectively in between her and the two Godspeeds with its back turned to her to try and make out any details about her new savior. At least, she thought it had its back turned to her. It was difficult to tell. All she could see was a blurry bright red shape, engulfed in even brighter red lightning that crackled menacingly around its entire body. It didn’t help that she could barely see a thing to begin with, and her brain seemed hell-bent on shutting down so she could barely think, but she was pretty certain that it wasn’t Thawne – if for no other reason than that the shape was red and not yellow. Unless maybe he’d had a change of heart regarding his choice of clothing and decided to make a fashion statement?

She held back from laughing, the rational part of her brain knowing that the momentary lapse in judgement was probably just hypoxia from her brain being deprived of enough oxygen, likely because the air in her lungs was being compressed and squeezed out of her by her ribs. She was drawn out of her silly thoughts as she saw the two Godspeeds get up to their feet and stare at their new enemy before one of them suddenly dashed off, leaving only one Godspeed.

“So it’s true,” she heard Godspeed mutter out in a tone of disbelief which brought her no short amount of confusion. Her new savior apparently wasn’t nearly as interested in the meaning of his words as he simply dashed forward, turning into a blur of red lightning as she suddenly saw it slam Godspeed back into the wall, although it didn’t take the white-clad speedster long to recover as he immediately sped off with her mystery figure giving chase. She tried to follow the fight with her eyes, yet she had a hard time focusing them so much on the ground, never mind two shapes moving at superspeed.

She could hear two distinct sounds of lightning zapping about somewhere in the background, yet she didn’t see the two speedsters reappear until she suddenly saw Godspeed fall from what looked like the roof of the stadium and collapse onto the ground in front of her – the red shape appearing in front of Godspeeds prone form in a zap of lightning shortly after.

“I’m going to kill you!” she heard the blurry red shape say as he hovered over his defeated enemy in a distorted voice she thought sounded oddly familiar, though she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. She heard Godspeed simply laugh, although with some effort as he coughed the moment he did so before he replied.

“Not this time, Flash,” he said simply, and she suddenly saw a blur of white lightning out of the peripheral of her vision just barely too late as Godspeeds clone rammed into her savior, causing him to roll along the ground before raising himself to one knee.

She looked up at the two Godspeed clones as they suddenly began to vibrate before morphing together into one form and speeding off. The moment Godspeed was gone she felt the rest of her strength leave her and she fell flat on her side with a sharp pang of pain. She could feel her consciousness fading, and she could just barely make out another distorted zap of Speed Force lightning before she saw her savior hovering over her.

“Nora? Nora, stay with me,” she could hear the shape say as it suddenly stopped vibrating, and she saw what she thought looked like the masked visage of her father before her vision was submerged in darkness and she passed out from the pain.

-

The moment she opened her eyes she felt a splitting headache reverberate through her skull as the sharp, piercing white light she was growing tired of seeing blinded her once more. She let out a groan as she held out her hand in front of her eyes as she’d done the last time she’d been in this situation, blinking rapidly until her eyes had adjusted to anything other than the pitch-black darkness of her unconscious and only then removing her hand to look around. As she’d suspected she was once again in the medical bay of S.T.A.R. Labs lying down on what had apparently become her assigned bed in the laboratory. She looked to her left, expecting to see the familiar sight of her mother sitting beside her only to find an empty chair in her stead. Only then did she register the distant voices outside her room, and she looked up to see her mom and Cisco who looked to be arguing standing out in the hallway through the window of the door.

She couldn’t make out what they were saying until suddenly the door flung open and she saw her mother walk in with her back turned to her.

“We’re done talking about this,” she heard Iris say before turning to look at her, her eyes widening as she quickly rushed over to her bedside and clutched her hand. “Nora! My God, are you okay?” Iris asked, the concern evident in both her voice and eyes as she looked down at her, and she awkwardly shifted her head up and down to nod without lifting her head from the pillow underneath her.

“Yeah, I’m fine, mom,” she replied, and truthfully, as she surprisingly didn’t feel any pain whatsoever excluding the agonizing headache. “How long have I been out?” she muttered out questioningly, her mother letting out a sigh of relief to hear she’s alright before narrowing her eyes at her almost sorrowfully.

“Almost five days. You had us worried there. Your speed healing kicked in days ago, you should’ve woken up a lot sooner,” Iris explained gently, and she had to curb the slight panic she felt at hearing how long she’d been unconscious for.

“What happened..?” she muttered out, her voice suddenly getting a lot weaker as she became aware of how tired she really was. She saw a flicker of hesitation in her mother’s eyes before she gave her hand a squeeze and a pat as she pulled back.

“I’ll tell you later. Just focus on resting for now. You’ve been through quite an ordeal,” Iris said in a soothing voice after a moment’s pause, slowly slipping her hand out of hers. While she would’ve normally protested, she was quite tired, so she reluctantly nodded as she leaned further into her pillow while her mom exited the room.

She slowly closed her eyes before falling asleep in no time at all, content to leave the questions for tomorrow.

-

Apparently her body didn’t quite agree with her as she woke up feeling a lot less rested than she should be, and she looked over at a clock on the wall to see it was barely 7 AM. Groaning, she slumped back into her pillow again, just about ready to drift back to sleep’s embrace when she heard slightly different sounding footsteps approach her bed and she slightly tilted her head up to look over at the new intruder – her exhausted body relaxing once she realized it was only Cisco who was looking at her with a sympathizing smile as he walked next to her bed.

“Hey, fangirl. How are you feeling?” he asked gently, and she forced herself to return a tired smile in his direction.

“Tired, but otherwise okay. You been here all night?” she replied, her brow quirking upwards in a question of her own, one he answered with a nod of his head.

“Yeah, couldn’t sleep. Something was scratching at that part of my brain, you know.”

She nodded in understanding before a thought occurred to her, and she tilted her head a bit to the side to voice it.

“Does it have anything to do with whatever you and my mom were arguing about yesterday?”

Cisco’s features scrunched up in a slight wince, sighing for a moment as he looked at her with amusement.

“Hear that, did you?” he answered in a question, and she slightly nodded her head.

“Just the end. What was that about, anyway?” she inquired, and he put on an obviously forced smile in reply.

“Nothing you need to worry about,” he said, and she just barely stopped herself from groaning at his answer. She hated when people tried to keep things from her. The only reason she wasn’t flat out forcing people to tell her was because she’d kept something from them, so she thought they deserved a bit of leeway in that regard.

“I was wondering something though, if you wouldn’t mind helping me out,” he said thoughtfully, and she simply nodded, very interested to hear whatever was on his mind.

“Sure, what’s up?” His eyes suddenly narrowed on her face with a strange intensity, like he was studying her features for any little change. It wasn’t often she saw Cisco look so serious, so it unnerved her quite a bit, yet she forced herself to keep her cool.

“I was wondering what you remembered from your fight with this ‘Godspeed’,” he asked, and she squinted in concentration as she scoured her mind for the information he’d asked for, slowly walking her way through it.

“Um.. Let’s see. I was having dinner with my dad when I saw Godspeed run past the window. I followed him, and we ended up fighting in the stadium. He was about to kill me when I saw another speedster run in and--..” She trailed off as she remembered just who she’d seen before she fainted.

Her dad in his Flash costume, covered in lightning. **Red **lightning.

She tensed up, failing to conceal her shock as Cisco clearly saw her change in demeanor and eyed her with even more scrutiny than before.

“..And?” he asked, urging her to continue.

“..And then I passed out and woke up here,” she answered almost automatically, her voice surprisingly steady as she regained her cool and slipped on her poker face – hoping it worked better on Cisco than it did her dad. Cisco nodded slowly, clearly not believing her though she didn’t try and reprimand him for it.

“And that’s all you remember?” he asked incredulously, and she nodded, careful not to seem overly enthusiastic or sure of herself.

“Yeah, why?” she answered, turning the question back onto him, and she could see the doubt on his face as he opened his mouth to answer her.

“I got some strange readings from the telemetries in Barry’s suit when he saved you,” he explained, his searching eyes narrowing onto her again. “You didn’t happen to see anything weird about him, did you?” They locked eyes as they stared at one another in silence for a few seconds, each studying the other as she finally shook her head.

“No. Nothing.”

Cisco nodded slowly at that, the two of them continuing their staring contest for a moment longer until he put on another forced smile.

“Sorry, I’m just a bit on edge after everything that’s happened. You go on back to sleep; we’ll talk in the morning,” he lied as he patted her hand, giving it a soft squeeze before walking away and leaving her alone in the room.

She let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding, her collected façade fading away as she closed her eyes to finally think about what she’d just learned in peace.

She felt bad for lying, but she didn’t want to throw her dad under the bus without being sure of what she’d seen. After all she’d basically been at death’s door; it’s perfectly possible that she’d imagined it all in her head. Her dad using the Negative Speed Force? That’s impossible. Ridiculous, even.

He was the kindest, most bright person she knew – not the type to give in to any negative emotions. He hated Thawne, why would he use his power? It just didn’t make any sense, and there was absolutely no need for her to jump to conclusions. She’d talk to him later and find out the truth of what happened. Until then, she really needed to get some rest.

With that in mind, she rolled over onto her side and buried her head deeper into the pillow, allowing herself to slowly fall asleep, although it wouldn’t be a restful one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there you have it. I hope you enjoyed the chapter and like where the story's headed. Sorry again for the long wait. As much as I'd like to say the next chapter will happen soon, things are still busy IRL currently so I can't promise anything, but I'll try and get it out sooner than it took me to get this one out.
> 
> Also, if anyone has a better idea for a title then feel free to share.


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